NHS trusts are sending "inadequately-trained" private ambulance crews to thousands of 999 calls amid a crisis in Britain's emergency services.

NHS bosses send 'ill-trained' private ambulance crews to 999 calls
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Senior medics and paramedics say lives are being put at risk by the use of commercial agencies to provide “blue-light” ambulances across swathes of Britain.

An investigation has revealed 11 counties where private firms have been given contracts to run front line emergency services as pressures on health services mount.

The College of Emergency Medicine has warned that patients’ safety is being put in jeopardy by the use of unregulated agencies, which it says use inexperienced or inadequately-trained staff, while paramedics said the practice was a “desperate” response to a crisis in emergency care.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that in 2008, a quarter of England’s 12 ambulance trusts, covering 11 counties, used private agencies to cover thousands of front line shifts.

Great Western Ambulance trust, which covers Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, filled 3,600 ambulance shifts with private agencies, while South Central Ambulance trust relied on 12 private ambulances to bolster services in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Hampshire. South Coast Ambulance trust, which covers Sussex, Surrey and parts of Hampshire, began using private ambulances in July and since when it has used them to fill 249 shifts, at a cost of £1,140 a day.

There are dozens of private ambulance firms in Britain, but the majority are used by the NHS as “patient transport” transferring non-emergency patients to different hospitals, or taking them home.

The firms are staffed by former NHS paramedics and ambulance technicians, “moonlighting” health service staff, and people who privately undergo training courses to reach technician level, which gives them more basic skills than a paramedic."

A and E "patient stacking" lunacy

A&E patients 'left in ambulances for hours'

Extract from Telegraph article:

"Seriously ill patients are left for hours in ambulances instead of being immediately admitted to accident and emergency departments to meet a Government target on treatment times, it was claimed yesterday.

The practice of "patient stacking" has left some waiting for up to five hours because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can be treated within the four-hour time limit.

Unison, the public sector union, said the practice poses a danger to other patients because ambulances detained as "waiting rooms" cannot answer new 999 calls.

Mary Maguire, a spokesman for the union, said: "This happens time and time again. It is an appalling waste of resources. We should not use ambulances as waiting rooms.

"A 16-year-old terminally ill cancer patient died after waiting over an hour for an ambulance to transfer him. Three ambulances could have reached him but they were tied up waiting to hand over patients to A&E."

Dr Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, called the situation ''entirely inappropriate and unacceptable".

Evidence of patient stacking is revealed in the official ''turnaround time" data released by seven of England's 11 regional ambulance services.

The figures show that over the past 15 months at least 44,000 delays were reported by the ambulance services. In some cases the delays were up to five hours."

This "patient stacking" is lunacy!

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Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients in Britain

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients - The Independent

Extracts:

"Britain's obesity epidemic is forcing the NHS to introduce specially adapted ambulances for overweight patients.

Nearly a quarter of hospitals have brought in vehicles which have strengthened stretchers, hoists and suspension, new figures show. More than a third of those surveyed said they were planning to introduce the ambulances, so they could cope with call-outs from the obese.

The NHS spends an estimated £7bn every year on obesity- or bariatric-related disorders. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI) goes over 30. Nearly a quarter of British adults are now overweight, which has created huge problems for ambulance crews."

"How Britain's obesity problem tips the scales

BIGGER COFFINS: Funeral directors are being obliged to order larger-sized coffins from the United States to take expanding Britons on their final journey.

LARGER FURNACES: Cematoriums are installing new furnaces to cater for coffins up to 44in wide.

FAIRGROUND RIDES: Designers are installing larger seats and altering the normal way of strapping passengers in by their shoulders. Instead, they are fastened in around the waist. G Force, in Tamworth, has a larger seat at the rear of each six-seater train.

NEW AMBULANCE TROLLEYS: Wider and reinforced to cope with extra weight. They also feature clamps that fix to the ambulance floor. "

Of course there would not be any of these problems if people had been given the facts about obesity. - Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful. 'Slimming'/dieting almost always results in weight gain because it usually causes increased fluid retention. There has never been any scientific, reproducible evidence to support the theory that eating fewer calories reduces obesity. PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR CALORIE INTAKE DO NOT LOSE WEIGHT. - PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR SALT/SODIUM INTAKE DO LOSE WEIGHT - EASILY AND RAPIDLY.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
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